Mr. Romeo

Mr. Romeo is a 1996 Tamil language film directed by K. S. Ravi and produced by R. B. Choudary. The film starred Prabhu Deva in a double role with Shilpa Shetty and Madhoo playing other leading roles. Surendra Pal, Vadivelu and Vijayakumar play supporting roles, while A. R. Rahman scored music for the film.^[1] The film opened in November 1996 to moderate response at the box office.

Plot

Romeo lives a privileged life as a celebrity with his widowed mother, in Bangalore, India. He receives considerable assistance and encouragement from Raj Mohan to dance and sing. He meets and is attracted to Madhoo, who is also his fan. His mother meets with Madhoo's grandfather and both arrange their wedding. Then Romeo finds out that Raj Mohan has been stealing body organ from patients in the Satya Moorthy Hospital, and then stages their deaths via bus accidents. He meets with Raj and warns him that he is going to expose him publicly. Before he could reveal their activities Romeo is shot and thrown off of a cliff. His friend, Prakashis framed for hid murder and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Prakash's sister Shilpa comes across Madras a poor dancer who is a lookalike of Romeo and convinces him to impersonate Romeo to clear her brother's name as well as to find the real perpetrator of the crime.

After getting thrown off the cliff, Romeo is taken in by tribals living in the hills and manages to survive. Upon finding Madras impersonating him he realises that Madras is his twin brother long presumed dead, using this to his advantage he starts taking revenge on Raj Mohan.

Cast

• Prabhu Deva as Madras and Romeo
• Madhoo as Madhoo
• Shilpa Shetty as Shilpa
• Vadivelu as Vavval
• Vijayakumar as DGP Vijayakumar
• Surendra Pal as Sathyamoorthy
• Venniradai Moorthy as Madhu's grandfather
• Delhi Ganesh as Romeo's father
• Madhan Bob as Sabapathy
• Mohan Ram
• Crazy Mohan
• Uday Prakash

Production

Prabhu Deva signed the film after securing a blockbuster with Shankar's Kaadhalan (1994) and demanded ₹60 lakh (US$89,000) for his work in the film. North Indian actress Shilpa Shetty was roped in to star in her first Tamil film, while Madhoo, who appeared in Mani Ratnam's Roja and Shankar's Gentleman was signed on to play second lead. The producer of the film asked the director, K. S. Ravi to be credited simply as Ravi in the film, to avoid confusion with another director K. S. Ravikumar.^[2] Mitchell camera weighed 50 kg was used for all the "double action" shots.^[3]

Release

The film opened in November 1996 and failed to meet the expectations at the box office, becoming Prabhu Deva's second consecutive average after Love Birds.^[4][5]

A.R. Rahman played a role in recommending the director K. S. Ravi to work in En Swasa Katre, a production of Rahman's acquaintances. Mr. Romeo was also belatedly dubbed and released in Telugu and Hindi under the same title.^[6]

Soundtrack

The music is scored by A. R. Rahman for the lyrics penned by Vairamuthu and Vaali and the soundtrack was distributed by Pyramid AV International. The lyrics for the Hindi version was penned by P. K. Mishra. The lyrics for the Telugu version was penned by Bhuvanachandra and Vennalakanti. The Music and the Choreography in the film achieved a cult status and soon became very big hits. A lot of songs from the movie are very famous and still regularly played today.

Original Version

Hindi Version (Mr. Romeo)

Telugu Version (Mr. Romeo)

References

External links

• Mr. Romeo at the Internet Movie Database